Redsplur.com

Well…Colorado is the first state to drop it’s minimum wage by 3 cents per hour.  It’s minimum wage was set last year at $7.28 and will be reduced to $7.25 this week.  Colorado is one of ten states that the minimum wage is directly tied to state inflation and the goal was to protect low income workers from getting hit on their paychecks as cost of living rises. 

But this change in minimum wages has some side effects…such as the this would allow state wide wage decreases.  Many people that are unemployed or have been working part time jobs to make ends meet have already been struggling on a daily basis. 

There are 13 states including Alaska that offer higher minimum wages than the federal minimum wage.  We have attached a couple of links to help you take a closer look at your wages in comparison to other states. 

Fact Sheet on Fair Wage Act 2007 – http://www.vtlivablewage.org/Fact_Sheet-FEDMINWAGE.pdf

Overview of Minimum Wages – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States

Salary Comparison – http://www.salary.com/

PayScale – http://www.payscale.com/

Cost of Living Calculator – http://www.bestplaces.net/COL/

We hope that this information is helpful and useful. 

Recruitment Professionals at Spectra Personnel Services

Looking for employment?  Over the past year, the unemployment has been continuously rising and many workers are finding themselves unemployed for the first time. 

Several weeks back, one of our bloggers wrote their one of their first blogs about being unemployed and that they had tryed for several months to acquire employment.  So the people at Redsplur decided to find some strategies to helping people find employment.  We have outlined a few pointers to help everyone….we hope they will prove to be useful.

• Updating your Resume – One of the biggest challenges that unemployed workers have is using an outdated resume.  Remember that old saying….your first impression is what counts?  Well in this case…your resume is your first impression.   Don’t apply to jobs using an outdated resume….this is a major no-no.  Make sure you have accurate and current information.  Specifically with your dates, your job functions, company information, and check for grammatical errors. 
• Cast a Wide Net – Make sure you tapping into several job posting websites.  We all know the big ones….careerbuilder.com, hotjobs.com, and monster.com.  But there are several smaller ones that are more niche based.  This can provide you a more detailed and indepth look at your industry.  Don’t think that just because you have your resume on a large site that you will get a job….remember that just like you several thousands of people are doing the exact same thing.  We would even suggest using job search engines to help you identify more jobs such as indeed.com and simplyhired.com.   In our blog section you will find an indeed banner just for this post…try it….its free and we think its a valuable resource.
• Be prepared - When you begin looking for job opportunities be realistic.  In many occassions, applicants sometimes feel that because they had performed a job 5 or 10 years back that they could still perform the job functions.  Be prepared and study the exact requirements.  Many things have changed over the past few years such as technology, laws, and certifications.  By no means are we telling you not to apply….what we want is for you to be prepared….study the job description, the company, and be ready to answer questions about your work history pretaining to this job.
• Stay updated – As the ecomony continues to change and the workplace environment tightens, many employers have been making salary cuts and reductions in order to maintain operations through these rough times.  Use salary guides to stay updated on what employers are currently paying for the type of job you are seeking.  Dont over shot or under sell yourself…stay focused.
• Last but not least…Temp? – Many companies have been outsourcing some of the work to temporary agencies.  It might not be your first choice but it will provide a paycheck and an opportunity to get introduced into a permanent position. 

We hope these bits of information are useful.  Good luck!

Still not convinced about Social Networking?  Wondering if there really could be any benefit to having a blog or is this just another media hype?  We have be wondering the same thing but our research showed that there are several key advantages to developing a blog and updating the world on your business.   Here are a few advantages I think you could find interesting….take a look.

• Creating a global business presence.  Thats correct…the Internet brings the world closer and closer to one another that you will find people in China reading about people in Mexico.   This intertwining connection gives small companies the same advantage that large companies have to market there products across the world.
• Collaboration.  Yes it’s true…through your blog, open forums, and discussions you can find experts in almost any subject matter.  (And just between us…we have been listening and asking and evolving through help from others)
• A Recruitment Tool.  Although this one is still relatively new…many HR professionals are using social blogs to discover and recruit unseen talent.  Thats right!  Tapping into new markets and talents to help create recruitment strategies.
• And the most important.  Cheap Marketing!  Yeah we said it.  Cheap marketing.  No longer do small and mid size companies have to empty bank accounts to afford marketing and advertising campaigns like the big boys.  In fact we are a prime example….we don’t have the heavy budgets like other social blogs…and guess what?  We are fine with that! 

Well we have given you 4 top reasons to change your method of doing business and to evolve with everyone else…but the final decision is yours. 

Here are 5 simple steps to making the most of your search engines.

1. Get a Domain name.
2. Take care with titles.
3. Use Keywords wisely.
4. Make your contact information obvious.
5. Link UP!  (We don’t think we can stress this one anymore)

This article can be found on Entrepreneur Magazine and written by:  Gwen Morgan – December 2008.

Gwen Morgan is co-author of The Complete Idiots Guide to Business Plans.  You can reach her at gwen@gwenmorgan.com

One of the biggest challenges that face companies today is implementation.  Correct…many companies have great employees with brilliant ideas but getting them to move forward from desktop to implementation is something else. 

Here are a few suggestions that could help you move faster…

1. Tracking – During one of those fabulous brainstorming sessions make sure that you are jotting the ideas down and then make sure you are tracking them.  Tracking them can help establish a flow and time frame of when an idea came from conception to implementation. 
2. Checkpoints – Make sure that when you track your innovative ideas and you begin to set a flow chart, that you begin to establish checkpoints.  This helps ensure that you stay true to your basic core concept and lets you identify key areas of improvement before they become overwhelmingly large. 
3. Deadlines – Try to establish a quick prototype date by creating effective and realistic deadlines.  This helps the concept move forward by continuously meeting on deadlines and checkpoints. 

We hope this tidbit of information was useful.  And as always we recommend that you research more on this material before embarking on large projects.

The U.S. Small Business Administration said Wednesday it launched its own channel at video sharing site YouTube to broaden its audience promoting the agency’s programs.

SBA is using the channel, online at www.youtube.com/sba, to post informational videos, starting with an overview of programs and services available to help small-business owners growing their companies.. The channel also features a 10-part “Delivering Success” series, which was co-produced with the U.S. Postal Service.

SBA said it plans to produce more in-depth videos about its programs to assist entrepreneurs, including government contracting, taking advantage of loan programs and counseling.

E-mail João-Pierre Ruth at jpruth@njbiz.com

The ACCION USA Microfinance Council hosts an engaging discussion on the challenges faced by domestic microfinance providers and how they will move forward. Distinguished panelists included: Gina Harman, President and CEO of ACCION USA; Lisa Servon, Dean of the New School for Management and Urban Policy; and Jonathan Morduch, Professor of Public Policy and Economics at NYU and Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative.

ACCION USA Domestic Microfinance Panel, 7/27/09 from Erica Dorn on Vimeo.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons (14.7 million) and the unemployment
rate (9.5 percent) were little changed in June.  Since the start of the
recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increas-
ed by 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage
points.  
   
In June, unemployment rates for the major worker groups–adult men
(10.0 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent),
whites (8.7 percent), blacks (14.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.2 per-
cent)–showed little change.  The unemployment rate for Asians was
8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.  

  
Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who com-
pleted temporary jobs (9.6 million) was little changed in June after
increasing by an average of 615,000 per month during the first 5 months
of this year. 

-  Bureau of Labor Statistics

How do you analyze and improve on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy?  One method of improving and increasing your effectiveness in your marketing strategy is by developing metrics.  Marketing metrics help to justify budgets by demonstrating value and ROI on marketing campaigns to an organization.

To create metrics, marketers first brainstorm on the business outcome that they are trying to impact. After determining what data is needed, marketers need to search for this data, and determine the decisions and actions that must to be enforced as a result of this data mining.

One of the most common methods is through numerical counting, reporting, and graphing.  This method demonstrates the outcomes such as marketing’s impact on share of preference, rate of customer acquisition, average order value, rate of new product and service adoptions, growth in customer buying frequency, volume and share of business, net advocacy and loyalty, rate of growth compared to competition and the market, margin, and customer engagement.